Wes

Unseld Jr.

The Wizards will use an interim coach to finish out the 2023-24 season and hire a new coach in the offseason. Unseld Jr. went 77-130 during his tenure with Washington, and team is just 7-36 through 43 games this season. How bad are things in the nation’s capital? Washington sits just 2.5 games ahead of the putrid Pistons, who set the record for most consecutive losses in a season.

The Wizards have won three straight with Kyle Kuzma playing out of his mind, and the team finally getting healthy. With Bradley Beal also in league protocols, they’ll rely on Kuz and Spencer Dinwiddie heavily while Unseld Jr. is out.

The deal is official after Unseld Jr. beat out Darvin Ham and Charles Lee for the job. Unseld Jr. worked as an assistant for the Wizards back in 2005-2011 and was most recently the associate head coach of Denver. He will have high expectations out of the gate with the Wizards returning their core of Bradley Beal, Russell Westbrook, Deni Avdija and Thomas Bryant.

Unseld beat out other finalists including Bucks assistants Darvin Ham and Charles Lee. He had seven years of experience as assistant with the Wizards from 2005-2011, and Adrian Wojnarowski points out that Unseld’s late father “is the most important figure in franchise history -- a Hall of Fame player, coach and executive with Washington.” It’s a new chapter for the Wizards, who have the core of their roster under contract for 2021-22 but will need replacement depth with Raul Neto, Robin Lopez, Ish Smith and Alex Len all headed for unrestricted free agency.

Unseld Jr. has been connected to the Wizards (and Bullets) seemingly since birth, as his father remains one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise. The younger Unseld was an assistant for the Wizards from 2005-11, and he has been a member of the Nuggets coaching staff since 2015. On Wednesday, it was reported that Bucks assistants Darvin Ham and Charles Lee were also under consideration for the Wizards head coaching job. One day later, it appears that Unseld Jr. has separated himself from the pack based upon this most recent report.